If Trump Sought To Fire Mueller But Didn't, Does That Mean Mueller's Safe Now?

President Trump sought to fire the special counsel but acquiesced when the White House's top lawyer didn't go along. That doesn't mean Mueller is out of danger.

Alex Wong
/ Getty Images

Originally published on January 26, 2018 1:16 pm

Updated at 10:31 a.m. ET

So President Trump sought to fire Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller last year — but the White House's top lawyer wouldn't go along. Does that mean Mueller is safe?

Maybe. Maybe not.

The news about Trump's desire to get rid of Mueller only weeks after the president dismissed FBI Director James Comey — but his unwillingness to press the matter — could mean Trump and his advisers feel it's too dangerous to attempt the same play twice.

Plus they've spent the months since advertising how closely they're cooperating with investigators both for the special counsel and for Congress.

All the same, if the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior, The New York Times story on Thursday night makes clear that the notion of firing Mueller is at least one Trump and his aides have evaluated in detail.

They went as far as coming up with reasons why Mueller was too conflicted to lead the investigation into whether the Trump camp conspired with the Russians who attacked the 2016 election. Reasons apparently included that Mueller had once disputed fees at a Trump golf club; that he once worked at a law firm that represents Trump's son-in-law; and that he had interviewed — with Trump — to replace Comey at the FBI.

The Times story also undercut all the statements by Trump and his aides that they had never even given a thought about trying to fire Mueller. So that horse is out of the barn. The response in Washington and the country to the Times report gives the administration a rare chance to assess what people would think if Trump tried again.

None of the legal or procedural avenues that were open to Trump before to get rid of Mueller are closed. If White House counsel Don McGahn wouldn't go along, Trump could replace him.

Trump could try to replace Attorney General Jeff Sessions with someone who is not recused from the Russia matter and could lean on Mueller and his team. Trump could replace Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, for whom Mueller now works, with someone who would get rid of the special counsel.

Rosenstein told the House Judiciary Committee last month that he monitors Mueller's work closely and has been satisfied with it. The law requires "cause" for Rosenstein to fire Mueller and so far there is none, the deputy attorney general said.

But Trump and his aides have come up with causes in the past to take action against people they wanted to fire. The president gave a number of reasons over a series of weeks for why he had fired Comey, starting with Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, calling him a "nut job" and a "showboat" and saying the Russia investigation was all made up.

That's not all, however. By now, Trump and the White House have a whole carryout menu's worth of choices to try to use against Mueller, from charges that he failed to investigate a 2010 uranium sale to charges he protected family members of Osama bin Laden to charges that he and his staff are infested with Democrats simply hounding Trump out of partisan animus.

Mueller's defenders have been calling all along for Congress to enact special legislation that protects him, but neither House Speaker Paul Ryan nor Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has seemed enthusiastic about going along with it. Plus Trump would have to sign any such bill.

Congress has boxed the president in before, however. Both chambers, controlled by Trump's own allies, passed tougher sanctions on Russia with vetoproof majorities to punish Moscow for its attack on the 2016 election — and took away Trump's discretion to relax them.

If the Times' report proves alarming to too many Americans, lawmakers could try to pass a bill protecting the special counsel that Trump might have no choice but to sign.

Or short of that, Ryan and McConnell could make clear how they would respond if Trump tried again.